Teaching collocations to teenagers through a fantasy-adventure movies/series subtitle corpus: A soft DDL approach

Abstract

Collocations are considered an indispensable part of vocabulary. Acquiring collocations is an easy process for native speakers of English, but it can be quite challenging for EFL learners (Bui, 2021). Even though knowledge of collocations is important in SLA, collocations are still a neglected element in the teaching process in the Greek educational context. Data-Driven learning (DDL), an inductive teaching approach which uses corpora data, has received considerable attention over the last two decades as it facilitates vocabulary acquisition and boosts learners' motivation by helping them to become autonomous and independent learners. However, far too little attention has been paid to the effects of DDL method in relation to collocation acquisition and learning in the Greek EFL context, especially in the secondary education. To this end, this thesis intends to shed light on the possible effectiveness of the integration of DDL method in the learning context of a Greek private English school on the acquisition of collocations and learning as well as to explore the EFL learners' perceptions on teaching of collocations and the DDL method. The present study investigates the data of fourteen students aged between 13 and 14 years old. The corpus-based activities are designed through a specialised corpus compiled by fantasy-adventure movies/series subtitles. The findings indicate that DDL has significantly helped EFL learners to learn and acquire collocations more efficiently, especially lexical ones, while also highlighting their positive attitude toward the teaching of collocations and the DDL method. The current study offers insightful teaching implications regarding the use of DDL method in teaching of collocations among teenagers.